The American taxpayer will no longer be the majority shareholder of the insurer American International Group (AIG) . Faced with the fear the domino effect after the fall of Lehman Brothers, the bank was bailed out by the Treasury and the Federal Reserve with 182,000 million (140,000 million) in September 2008. Four years later, after successive asset sales and stock packages, ballast is released not only to the taxpayer but the Treasury will benefit the operation on its own forecasts.

The U.S. Treasury on Monday announced the fifth round of selling AIG shares valued at 18,000 million dollars , most of the time. Their participation has decreased to less than 20%, thus becoming a minority. The U.S. government has gradually reduced its stake from 92% at baseline.

During these four years has been shedding plus all of the mortgage assets of the insurer, the most toxic. The Treasury completed in late February sale Maiden Lane III fund, by which made a profit of 6,600 million dollars, in addition to more than 2,800 million he made last February by selling Fund Maiden Lane II , and others who obtained 8,200 million in January 2011.

Government estimates put the benefit to the public purse of 15,000 million dollars . Understand that starting in the $ 28.73 share price of AIG, Americans not only offset the disbursed day, but would be making money from the bailout. Since the insurer titles are fluctuating around $ 32, the Government Accountability Office has conducted a screening counting book full output of the shareholders of the entity.

But not everyone agrees with these optimistic forecasts. For example, Neil Barofsky , one of the technicians who participated in the rescue plan, the Program Troubled Asset Relief (TARP, in English). In an interview with the New York Times , describes the formula by the government as "absurd" and the projection is based on the estimation of the benefits as a potion of "creative accounting".

Barofsky says, along with other critics, that the equilibrium price at which the charity is to reach 43.53 dollars. This figure comes from adding the investment that also made ​​the Federal Reserve at the time, no less than 85,000 million dollars.

The Government's argument is that this part of the rescue and is amortized. The Federal Reserve received a huge package of shares in exchange for the money and, continuing the argument, those actions later passed to the Treasury, by "complex transactions" as qualified by the American newspaper.